Sound Off: How are wildfires affecting the housing market?

Q: “How are wildfires affecting the housing market?”

A: Monstrous wildfire seasons are becoming too tragically regular. This will impact how and where we live.

Getting a Wine Country or Russian River retreat may look too risky if there’s a frequent chance it’ll burn. Worse, if insurers refuse coverage for high-risk areas, many of the impacted areas will effectively become off-limits thus reducing the number of ‘exodus’ destinations for people thinking about leaving the city.

And while air conditioning was considered an unnecessary and rarely used luxury in the city, our new reality of having 30 spare-the-air days in a row is changing this. As more folks spend more time at home, many are wanting a/c at home because modern systems also filter the air — a necessity as the number of spare-the-air days increase and you can’t even open your windows when it’s sweltering outside.

This dystopian vision will make us make relish clear days that much more, meaning that folks will want proximity to parks or seek out homes with green spaces of their own.

Kevin K. Ho, Vanguard Properties, 415-297-7462, kho@vanguardsf.com; Jonathan B. McNarry, Vanguard Properties, 415-215-4393, jbm@vanguardsf.com.

A: San Francisco quickly went from the escape room to the safe room.

COVID-19 created a desire to leave San Francisco, while the wildfires have brought people back. Until recently, I found myself giving clients referrals to real estate agents in the wine country. Those same clients have since been evacuated and are hunkering back down in San Francisco.

San Francisco has the lowest rate of COVID-19 for a major city and looks attractive again. I feel that buyers are now...